


The Gifted

by Brioux



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: 2015 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Engagement, Fluff, Getting Together, Long-Distance Relationship, Magical Realism, NHL Draft, Other, Post-Trade, Pre-Slash, Superpowers, World Cup of Hockey
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-03
Updated: 2016-11-03
Packaged: 2018-07-12 01:39:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 17,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7079356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brioux/pseuds/Brioux
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being Gifted isn’t as rare as some people think. About fifteen percent of the world’s population is known to be Gifted, and that number continues to rise thanks to the 1980s “Gifted Equality” movement that made being Gifted less taboo and more normal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Alex Galchenyuk and PK Subban

**Author's Note:**

> This has been sitting in my brain for a while and I finally got the motivation to write it all out. Each chapter is going to highlight one player (or more) in the league who is Gifted. They may or may not overlap with each other.
> 
> If you like it, please comment!

No one knows how the Gift came about. For centuries, Gifted people were labeled as “witches” or “mutants” to “monsters.” In some cultures, they were hunted, exiled, and even executed.

Being Gifted isn’t as rare as some people think. About fifteen percent of the world’s population is known to be Gifted, and that number continues to rise thanks to the 1980s “Gifted Equality” movement that made being Gifted less taboo and more normal.

There are a lot of things scientists still don’t understand about the Gift, though research has greatly improved the general population’s basic understanding. One of the most common facts known about the Gifted is that there are two ways to receive a Gift.

The most common is to be born into a bloodline. About ninety-nine percent of the Gifted population present with it on their tenth birthday. In families with strong Gifted bloodlines, the anticipation of a child’s presentation has become more exciting than just about any other milestone in their life. Some families have even started to throw extravagant parties to celebrate their newly presented child, almost like a quinceañera or a bar mitzvah.

The other (much less common) way is to be given it by a Super Gifted. This method of receiving the Gift is still a mystery to most scientists, since the Super Gifted are rare and often unwilling to share their status with scientists. Since Super Gifted people are hard to find, and can only bless one person in their lifetime, these transactions are monitored closely by governments, and typically cost an individual millions of dollars to receive.

Alex wasn’t born with his Gift. Being Gifted doesn’t run in his bloodline. The problem is, he never asked for it, either.

When Alex was eleven, he was walking home after practice one day when he came across an old woman being attacked in an alley. Knowing he was in a area with a high population, he started screaming for help.

Surprised by his screaming, the attacker fled the scene, leaving Alex alone with the old woman. He stumbled closer, to ask if she was okay, and before he could say anything the woman pressed her hand to his cheek and mumbled words of gratitude. Alex felt his cheek flare with warmth and his fingers and toes start to tingle, but the feeling lasted just a brief moment until someone started running down the alley towards them.

Alex presented with his Gift two days later.

At first, he thought his new ability was stupid. When he voiced this opinion, the little haze surrounding his mother turned blueish-gray, letting him know that she was disappointed in him. But really, what is an eleven-year-old boy supposed to do with the ability to see people’s emotions?

His favorite way to use his Gift was noticing when Anna or his mom were sad, and doing something to make the haze turn from dark blue to sunny yellow again. That, he figured, was the only perk of his new talent.

His Gift became more useful the older he got. He learned how to read the colors better, tell the difference between particularly similar emotions, understand the movement of emotions between people, and he learned when and how to step in to diffuse certain situations. It made him a good family member, a strong leader in locker rooms, and helped him make friends wherever he went.

Growing up, Alex never talked about his Gift with anyone outside of his family. He’d heard the stories about religious zealots who still refuted the idea that the Gifted people were simply the next step in evolution. The crazies who marched into towns in masses and lit the houses of the Gifted on fire, preaching the dangers of making deals with the Devil.

That mostly didn’t happen as much anymore, though he’d heard of it happening a few times in the South. But Alex still always thought it was best to keep his secret to himself.

Legally, only a Gifted’s doctor and employer have the right to know his status, and since the only job he ever worked was minor construction for his uncle, he never felt the need to tell anyone. Not even his best friend Nail.

His first experience with telling someone outside of his family came right after his draft day, across a conference room table from Marc Bergevin and Michel Therrien, with Geoff Molson on speakerphone. He was nervous as hell, but the three men took the news better than he expected.

“You aren’t the first Gifted player in Montreal,” Molson had said to him. “And you won’t be the last.”

The comment made Anna burst with curiosity. But for Alex, he was just relieved.

***

He doesn’t think about Molson’s comment again until he’s staring at the nameplate over his stall the first day of training camp. He can feel a pair of eyes staring at him from behind, way too intense for his liking. It’s almost like someone knows what he is, and isn’t happy about it. Alex risks a glance around the locker room. Most guys’ emotions are the same—bright flashes of neon yellow excitement mixed with slight undertones of pale green nervousness. Nothing seems out of place, really. Not until he spots a flash of burnt orange that he’s learned through Anna to recognize as curiosity. It has a hint of red underneath, too dim for him to distinguish if it’s anger or frustration.

The emotions belong to PK Subban, and Alex locks eyes with his intense stare for just a moment before turning back around to his locker. If he could see his own emotions, he knows his haze would be projecting a light red of embarrassment. Why is Subban staring at him so intently? It’s not like Alex is anything special in this locker room. He isn’t competing for Subban’s spot on the team. He isn’t being obnoxious and loud like Gallagher is, his haze of excitement reaching out to touch just about everyone it can.

Does Subban know what he is? Did someone in the front office tell him, or can he tell himself? Does Subban—this guy he’s supposed to be teammates with—have a problem with him on a fundamental basis?

Alex wants to reach out and ask, to find out if he’s in danger or anything, but he knows he has to get ready for practice. Everyone else is already starting to get dressed. He doesn’t have time to overthink the situation, he’ll have to figure it out later. He’s got coaches and teammates to impress, and a team to make.

He thinks he does pretty well in the drills. He scores a couple goals, and makes a couple nice passes. He’s clearly a little on the small side compared to some of the guys around him, but he’s holding his own.

The boys are giddy in the locker room after, pleased with the way the first practice went, and Alex hopes that maybe the thing with Subban has passed. Maybe he over reacted or was projecting his own feelings out too hard. That is, until Subban corners him on the way out.

“Galchenyuk, right?” Subban asks. His haze is mostly the same shade of blue contentment as everyone else, so Alex feels less like his safety is being threatened at the moment than before.

“Uh. Yeah,” he responds. “Call me Alex.”

“Cool. I’m PK. Let’s go get lunch, eh?”

Alex nods and follows Subban out to his car. He gestures to the passenger door.

“I can bring you back here after,” he offers. “Or I can take you home. Whatever.”

Alex nods again and gets in.

Subban—sorry, PK takes them to a little sandwich shop around the corner from the Bell Center, and the hostess seats them right away.

“I found this place at the end of training camp last year,” PK explains. “I come here a lot now.”

They get seated and get through ordering their food with minimalist chatting before Alex starts to notice the curiosity from earlier beginning to surround PK again.

“So you’re Gifted,” PK says seriously.

Alex jumps in surprise. He glances around the restaurant quickly, hoping no one overheard PK’s comment.

“Don’t say it so loudly,” he whispers. “What if the waitress was right here?”

“Don’t worry about that,” PK says with a laugh, though his voice is quieter.

“How do you know about me?” Alex asks, affirming PK’s statement.

“Because I’m Gifted too,” PK smiles.

And—yeah, okay. Alex takes a deep breath and the knot that had been sitting in his stomach starts to unclench. That’s cool.

“Oh,” he says. “What’s, um…”

“What’s my Gift?” PK asks with a quirked eyebrow. “I can tell if someone is Gifted or not just by looking at them. And I can also locate anyone in the world just by thinking about them. Well, it has to be someone I’ve met before. And the farther away I am from them, the less precise I get… Though the better I know someone the easier it is to tell exactly where they are.”

“That sounds pretty cool,” Alex admits. “It must come in handy sometimes.”

“It’s useful, for sure. Like I know that the waitress is in the kitchen right now so she’s not going to overhear us. And I know that my mom is three blocks over from her best friend’s house, my brothers are both at the rink at home, and my dad is at work, and they’re all okay.”

“You were no fun to play hide and seek with as a kid, were you?” Alex chuckles softly.

“Nah, my brothers never let me be it after I presented. But I have a friend who’s also Gifted and we used to mess around with it all the time. He used to jump to random places and make me figure out where he went.”

Alex knows his eyes are wide. He’s heard of some pretty cool Gifts, but this definitely seems like the coolest one out there.

“So what about you, huh?” PK asks. “What’s your Gift?”

Alex shrugs. After hearing that PK can locate someone anywhere in the world and he has a friend who can fucking teleport, he doesn’t think his Gift is that special.

“I can see emotions,” he explains.

The curiosity around PK gets richer.

“You can see them?” he asks. “How?”

“It’s like—” Alex sighs. This is mostly why he’s never told anyone before, it’s hard to describe his Gift without sounding a bit crazy. “Everyone has this thin layer of color around them. It’s kind of a fog, but it doesn’t cover your whole body. It’s more like an outline? I don’t know how to describe it, I call it a haze in my head. But the haze turns different colors based on the emotion or emotions someone is feeling at the moment. So for example, right now your haze is very saturated with a dark orange that means you’re curious. But you also have a light line of a sunny yellow underneath that means you’re happy.”

PK’s eyes are big and even without the Gift Alex can tell he’s intrigued.

“Dude that’s so cool,” he rushes out. “It’s like you’ve got your own personal mood ring for everyone or something.”

Alex opens his mouth to respond, but PK’s head cocks and he makes a quick motion with his hand across his neck to stop him. Seconds later, the waitress returns with their lunches. PK thanks her with a genuine smile, and Alex does the same.

“So we’re totally gonna keep talking about how cool your Gift is, but first I have a little question that maybe you can help me out with,” PK says as they dig in.

“Sure,” Alex says with a shrug.

“So with my Gift most of the time I look at someone and it’s super obvious to me if they’re Gifted or not. Like I just know, you know? But with you, it was kinda fuzzy. I thought maybe you were because my head said you were, but my gut kept saying no, you’re not Gifted. I’ve never had that happen to me before, though. I’ve always just know yes or no, Gifted or not. Maybe it’s just something funky going on in my head, but do you have any idea why that might be?”

Alex pauses, his fork half way to his mouth, which PK notices.

“You do?” he asks.

“I mean, I might?”

PK raises and eyebrow, so Alex continues.

“I wasn’t born Gifted,” he explains. “When I was eleven, I saved a woman from being attacked. She was a Super Gifted, so to thank me she gave it to me.”

“Huh,” PK says, looking impressed. “That’s pretty cool. Yeah, I’ve never met anyone who was given the Gift so I guess maybe that’s why you seemed fuzzy to me.”

“Good to know for the future, I guess,” Alex says with a shrug.

“Yeah,” PK says. “Anyway, you and I gotta stick together from now on, okay? Us cool people and all.”

“Yeah.” Alex smiles. “So, uh—are there any others on the team?”

PK smirks.

“On the Habs, no. But you’d be surprised to know how many of us there are in the league.”


	2. Steven Stamkos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steven Stamkos will do just about anything for PK Subban.

**Subby: come here**

**Stammer: Why?**

**Subby: i want u 2 meet my rookie**

**Stammer: ?**

**Subby: hes like us!!!!!!**

**Subby: im ordering take out. ur fav!**

**Stammer: Where are you?**

**Subby: my place in mtl**

**Subby: living room**

Steven sighs and types out a quick text to Vinny.

**Stammer: Subby is being weird again. Heading to MTL for a bit.**

**Vinny: Bus to the airport is at 9am. Don’t be late.**

Steven was nervous at first to tell Vinny about his Gift. Technically, he didn’t have to tell him at all, but he figured having one of the guys know about it would be beneficial in the long run. He hadn’t accidentally jumped anywhere in years but just in case he disappeared, one of the guys knows what his story is. He got PK’s permission to tell Vinny about him as well, just in case he jumps without his phone and they can’t find him.

Again—it hadn’t happened in years, but Steven figured it’s better to be over prepared. Just in case.

He pockets his phone and wallet, locks his house up, and closes his eyes.

The first time it happened was on his tenth birthday. His mom was making him help clean the house in preparation for his family’s visit later that night. He remembers wishing so hard that he could be at the rink, skating and playing hockey instead of cleaning. And in a flash, he was standing in the middle of the ice at the local rink, the broom and dust pan still in his hands.

He had been startled at first, maybe even a little panicked. But then he realized where he was, and remembered that it was his tenth birthday, and everything started to fall into place. He had calmly walked up to the rink manager, who knew him well by then, and asked to call his mom to come get him.

He’s gotten a lot better at jumping since then. Now, he just thinks about the living room in PK’s apartment. He visualizes the dark brown leather couch, the glass table in the middle of the room, the tv on top of the entertainment center, overflowing with the movies and video games he’s collected over the years.

He feels the familiar crack go through his body and his ears pop just in time to hear someone shout. When he opens his eyes, he’s met with the sight of PK laughing at the Habs’ new call-up—some Russian name, Steven can’t remember.

“What—” the kid whispers, staring at him with wide eyes.

“Nice of you to pop in,” PK says predictably, standing up for a hug.

“That comment never gets old,” Steven remarks fondly, rolling his eyes. He crosses the room and into PK’s arms, giving him a hearty squeeze.

“Hey, time to meet my rookie, eh?” PK says, gesturing to the kid. “Stammer, meet Alex Galchenuk. Chucky, this is Steven Stamkos.”

“Nice to meet you,” Steven says diplomatically, reaching a hand out. Galchenyuk shakes his hand, giving him a quick once over and glancing between him and PK.

“You, too,” he says. “So you’re PK’s teleportation friend.”

Steven laughs and looks over at PK, who is smiling big as usual. He settles into the couch between them and swipes a swig of PK’s beer.

“Yeah, I guess that’s me,” he says.

They fall into a comfortable conversation as they eat, discussing their Gifts and their childhoods. Steven tells him about growing up with PK, and he talks about growing up in Russia.

Steven has to admit, he thinks that Galchenyuk’s Gift is pretty interesting. A lot of people are pretty impressed with his own ability, even with the restrictions, but he thinks it would be cool to be able to see people’s emotions. It would certainly make life in the locker room easier.

Throughout the night, the kid keeps giving him these thoughtful looks, along with wondering glances at PK. Steven knows he’s always been a little obvious about his feelings for his friend, but he never thought anyone would actually be able to physically see them. He may or may not have to have a chat with the kid, just to save himself a little bit of face.

“You spending the night?” PK asks as they’re cleaning up.

Galchenyuk surveys them carefully, likely because he knows PK’s apartment is only a one-bedroom.

“I have a bus to catch at nine tomorrow morning,” he says.

“That’s not really an answer,” PK pushes. “Are you packed?”

He nods and PK looks at him with those big brown eyes. Steven feels his will melting.

“Yeah, sure,” he says.

PK grins widely and Steven catches Galchenyuk giving them both the same intrigued look. But still, he says nothing.

Steven makes sure to swap numbers with him as he’s leaving, just so the kid has a Gifted person in the league to reach out to other than PK. Galchenyuk thanks him and gives PK a quick hug before the door shuts and it’s just the two of them left.

Later, as he’s setting his alarm, Steven is glad that the kid isn’t here anymore. He feels free to enjoy the feeling of PK snuggling up to him mostly guilt-free.

“Thanks for coming,” PK says softly into his shoulder.

“Of course,” Steven responds. “You know I always will.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stammer's Gift's restrictions, for reference:  
> -He can only jump to a place he has already been to.  
> -Anything he's got in his pockets or hands jump with him.  
> -There is a distance limit, he can't just jump anywhere. TB to Montreal is at the very far end of his range, though it's not too difficult since he makes the jump fairly often.


	3. Jamie Benn, Jordie Benn, and Tyler Seguin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Apparently, siblings with a strong connection and complementary Gifts have been presenting together for centuries. They say it has something to do with being able to help control one another.

The Benn family has a very strong Gifted bloodline. Like, abnormally strong. It’s been decades since the last time someone in the Benn family wasn’t Gifted. That’s why no one was surprised when Jordie presented on his tenth birthday.

What was a surprise, however, was when Jamie presented just two days later, one year, eleven months, and twenty days earlier than expected.

Jamie did the math himself. Twice.

The doctors were surprised at first, but with a little bit of research they came back with news that this was hardly the first time someone presented earlier than expected. Apparently, siblings with a strong connection and complementary Gifts have been presenting together for centuries. They say it has something to do with being able to help control one another.

Less than a week after the doctors gave them the medical all-clear, Jordie almost sets their house on fire by accident. As the ice is leaving Jamie’s fingertips to squelch the flames, Jamie thinks the control thing is definitely the most reasonable explanation.

The Benn family, as a whole, have attended just about every Gifted conference in BC, and multiple conferences around the country for as long as Jamie can remember. Jamie has met people with all types of abilities, but has never met anyone like the two of them. It makes Jamie a little defensive of their relationship, and Jordie a little defensive of Jamie.

Despite being told that the ability to control elements like fire and ice are fairly common, it isn’t until the summer of 2013 that they finally meet someone like them. They’re lucky, really, that there aren’t a whole lot of people in the airport when Jordie shakes Tyler Seguin’s hand and both of their arms burst into flames.

“Shit dude, I’m so sorry,” Jordie says with a gasp, pulling back.

Jamie is already reaching out, ready to jump in and extinguish Seguin, but his new teammate seems completely unfazed by the fire licking up his hand and wrist.

“Sweet,” Seguin says with a chuckle. The fire slowly extinguishes itself. “You accidentally set your house on fire as a kid, too?”

Jordie laughs heartily, one that Jamie usually only hears when they’re around family and close friends, and claps Seguin on the shoulder.

“Almost, a couple of times. But Chubbs’s iceberg hands kept me in control,” he responds, gesturing towards Jamie. Seguin shoulders his bags and the three of them start making their way towards Jamie’s car.

“So you’re Gifted too?” he asks.

“Yeah,” Jamie says, letting a couple snowflakes pile up in the palm of his hand for show. “Our whole family is.”

“Everyone?” Seguin asks, seemingly impressed. Jamie nods. “It’s just me and my mom in our family. We had to learn early on to stock up on fire extinguishers.”

Jordie spends the rest of the ride telling Seguin all about Dallas and sharing childhood fire-related experiences. It seems, to Jamie, that Seguin is humoring him, mostly. He seems tired, and not just from the flight.

“Hey listen,” Jamie eventually interrupts Jordie’s rambling. “Why don’t we drop you off at the hotel you’re staying at? You can take a shower and a nap and then we can pick you up for dinner.”

“Yeah,” Seguin agrees. “That would be good.”

They get to the hotel and Jamie offers to carry Seguin’s other bag up to his room with him while Jordie stays in the car.

“Sorry about Jordie,” he says in the elevator. “We’ve never met anyone else who can control the elements like us before. I think he’s kinda excited.”

“No, it’s cool,” Seguin says easily. “I get it. I’ve never really met anyone who can do what I can either.”

They’re quiet until they’re in the room. Jamie drops the second bag down on the chair.

“Listen—” Jamie takes a deep breath as Seguin stares at him. “I know coming here must be tough. It’s probably overwhelming and upsetting. I can’t say that I know what you’re feeling, I can only imagine. But…we’re really happy to have you here. The Stars are making positive changes and I really think we’re gonna become a great team in the next few years. And I don’t—I don’t believe any of the shit that Boston is saying about you. I think you’re a great player and you’re going to become a very important part of this team.”

Seguin looks down at his feet and Jamie notices a blush spreading across his cheeks.

“We’ll prove them wrong,” Jamie insists.

“Yeah,” Tyler says. “We will.”

*****

In a way, Tyler and Jamie completely embody their Gifts.

Tyler is all energy, fierce and powerful and in your face. Jamie is more subdued and quiet, though just as powerful.

It takes them about two days to realize that they fit together naturally, just like Jamie and Jordie always have. They’re the Dallas Stars’ odd couple, which totally works for both them and management.

As teammates, they’re instantly tuned in to each other on the ice. Passes connect like they’ve been playing together for years instead of days, and Jamie has never felt as free and empowered playing with anyone else on his line. He just always seems to know where Tyler is going to be and what he’s thinking about doing with the puck. As friends, the chemistry isn’t as instantly visible. But it’s still there, growing stronger over the weeks and months they spend together.

The problem is, as they start their second year on the Stars together, Jamie starts feeling like maybe he wants more than just a really close friendship and on-ice partnership with Tyler.

It starts with the little touches Tyler leaves on Jamie’s arms and shoulders, radiating warmth that Jamie knows from experience only comes from his Gift. They leave Jamie feeling just a bit flustered, not at all like when Jordie sparks him as a prank. Tyler’s touches leave him feeling warmer inside than that.

The flustered feeling continues to pop up randomly when they’re hanging out together. When Tyler gets excited over Jamie making ice balls for Marshall and Cash to deal with the Dallas heat, or when Tyler roasts a couple marshmallows for them in Jamie’s backyard, giggling at the flames flicking up from his fingers and teasing Jamie with the threat of a completely burnt marshmallow.

The feelings and emotions build and build until it finally gets to a point where Jamie just—he has to stop, okay? Because he’s starting to go down a road that he doesn’t think he’ll be able to come back from and that’s just not fair to himself or to Tyler or to the team.

But it’s hard for him to stay away from Tyler, especially since right after he decides he needs to have some space, they leave for a 2 week-long roadie. Long plane rides, busses to and from hotels, and team dinners every night leave him little room to escape his normal routine.

He tries anyway, though. And his team is quick to notice.

“Everything alright, cap?” Val asks getting onto the bus to the hotel in Nashville.

Jamie nods and puts his headphones in.

“Hey, I meant to ask. Are your hips doing okay? I know they’ve been bothering you a little,” Spezza asks in the elevator up to their rooms in Carolina.

Jamie gives him a smile and a nod, slipping out of the elevator as soon as it opens.

“You getting sick or something?” Fidds asks as they head back to the hotel early from team dinner together in Washington.

Jamie nods, and says he’s just tired. It’s obvious Fidds doesn’t completely believe him, but Jamie is grateful he decides not to push the subject.

“Are you mad at us?” Jason asks at breakfast in Columbus. “Because I know we’re not winning the way we should be right now, but we’re getting the points. And we’re all trying our best.”

“No, I’m not mad at you guys,” Jamie answers firmly. He knows the team is doing their best, and he wants them to know he knows that. The Stars are winning games. They’re going into more overtime than they want, and aren’t playing as dominantly as they can. But they are winning.

Jordie is the one who finally cracks him, because of course he is. Jamie is a little surprised he waits until they’re back in Dallas, though he figures it’s probably because Jordie knows he’s more comfortable at home and therefore more willing to talk.

All it takes is a couple of prodding questions and Jamie opens up, spilling everything from the feeling he gets when he’s around Tyler to his fears of what could happen to him and the team if he can’t control them. Jamie knows he’s getting himself too emotionally worked up as he talks, but he just can’t help it. He doesn’t even realize his hands are starting to freeze over, spreading ice across the kitchen counter, until Jordie leans over the island and gives them a bit of a heated squeeze.

“I just…I don’t know what to do,” he finally admits, taking a deep breath.

Jordie sighs and cracks open a beer. He passes it over for Jamie to chill and takes a long sip.

“I think you’re overthinking this,” Jordie says. Jamie just shrugs, so Jordie continues. “Look, ice is the kind of thing that can hide itself well, right? Black ice and ice in the cracks of pavement and stuff. You don’t always see it, even if it’s right in front of you. That’s you, bud. You’re hiding everything by keeping it inside. But fire isn’t like ice. Fire is impossible to hide. Tyler and I, we wear our emotions on our sleeve. I don’t know how you’ve missed it, maybe I can just read him better since we share the whole fire thing. But I think it’s pretty obvious that Tyler feels the same way you do. He just doesn’t know that the feelings are mutual.”

Jamie steals a sip of Jordie’s beer and processes this opinion. He wants to believe the words he’s hearing, but doesn’t completely trust that they’re the truth.

  
“Go visit him, Chubbs,” Jordie encourages him. “Just tell him how you feel.” 

*****

The following summer, as the two are officially moving the final boxes from Tyler’s empty apartment into Jamie’s house, Jamie is grateful he took his brother’s advice.

“I’m not made for Dallas summer,” Tyler jokes as he drops one of the last boxes into Jamie’s truck. “I’m too fragile for this heat.”

“You can literally set your entire body on fire,” Jamie says with an eye roll.

“But that’s by choice,” Tyler argues. “This heat is killer and I don’t want it.”

Jamie crowds into Tyler’s space from behind and wills his lips and hands to freeze over. He presses his mouth gently on the back of Tyler’s neck and his hands under Tyler’s sweat-soaked shirt.

“Let’s get the rest of your stuff to my place and I know a way you can cool off,” he murmurs.

He’s rewarded with a full-body shiver.

“Doc said you’re not supposed to do anything too strenuous,” Tyler says weakly. “You have surgery in a couple days.”

“I guess that just means you’ll have to do all the work,” Jamie says smugly.

Tyler turns around and wraps his arms around Jamie’s neck. He leans in to press their lips together, and bites a little at Jamie’s lower lip.

“I can work with that,” he says with a smile.


	4. Claude Giroux

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't mean for this to end up being over 3k with feelings. But yet here we are.
> 
> Comments and kudos are super appreciated :)

Many people are ashamed of their Gifted status. Claude is not one of them.

From the day of his tenth birthday on, Claude has never shied away from letting his Gift be known. Even those who didn’t know him personally knew of the redheaded spitfire who occasionally turned into different animals.

Per his mother’s request, Claude did keep his status under wraps once he started gaining attention from scouts. While he has never been ashamed of who he is, the idea of having a Gifted player in the NHL was still taboo at the time and he didn’t want to spoil his chance of making it.

That all changed when he shook Mike Richards’s hand for the first time, who promptly turned into a wolf in front of Claude’s eyes.

“So you’re Gifted,” Jeff Carter had said from behind him.

Claude shifted his gaze back and forth between Carter and the brown wolf who was supposed to be his new captain, terrified he had somehow done something wrong.

“Richie absorbs people’s powers,” Carter explained calmly. “Just help him turn human again and you two can talk all you want.”

Richards, thankfully, was super cool about the whole thing. And immediately became Claude’s mentor not only on the ice, but off it as a Gifted NHL player as well. He introduces Claude to the Gifted Network, and Claude meets more Gifted players than he ever knew existed in the NHL.

The bond that formed between them as teammates and as friends was what made Claude so sure of himself when it came to being named the new captain of the Philadelphia Flyers. For so many years, Richie had been stressing to him to just be himself (funny, for a guy who’s Gift relied so heavily on other Gifted people) that Claude knew what he had to do.

Between the national media’s hatred for the city of Philadelphia and the lingering problems between the regular and Gifted communities, the media took Claude’s announcement as the first out Gifted player in the league about as well as anyone expected them to—which basically means they went completely nuts.

Claude has no idea how many times he said “my Gift has nothing to do with how I play hockey” in the following week or so, but the support from the Network and almost immediate change in demeanor towards Gifted players in the league was worth it.

Claude understood the nation-wide impact of his coming out right away, but he doesn’t really realize the personal impact it has on his fellow NHL players until he’s in Prague for the World Championships. He knows there are a couple of Gifted players on Team Canada, a perk of the Network. But even with Luke on the Flyers it’s been a while since he’s been surrounded by this many of his kin. The fun starts at the very beginning when Seguin walks into their room and breaks out into a huge smile at the sight of Claude laying on the bed closest to the window.

“Nice,” he says. “I guess they decided to put all the Gifted guys together.”

Claude smiles back.

“I guess so,” he says.

Claude has never had a strong relationship with the kid, but he seems like a decent dude and Claude’s cool with getting to know him better. Claude’s coming out doesn’t seem like it impacted Seguin that much at first, but as they start to talk about their abilities and share stories about being Gifted in the league, Claude realizes that he got pretty lucky being drafted to the Flyers—to and organization that recognizes that Gifted players are people too.

“Even with the new regulations, Boston still isn’t good with guys like us,” Seguin says with a shrug. “I think they’re still afraid of us.”

Claude can see that, now that he thinks about it. The Bruins have always been a little rougher on him than the other guys on his team. He always thought it was just because he’s the captain, but. Maybe not.

The biggest thing Claude isn’t expecting in Prague is fucking Crosby actually being a decent human being and a good captain.

Though, don’t let the fans in Philly hear him say that. But it’s disgustingly true.

Crosby (Claude isn’t sure he can call him Sid quite yet, his wrists still get sore on rainy days) approaches him a couple days into the tournament and asks him to have a private conversation.

In Crosby’s room (seriously, why is he so special he gets a fucking suite all to himself when the rest of them have to share a normal hotel room?), he admits that he has a Gifted player on his team and has recently started to become concerned about him.

“He can heal other people, which is pretty cool,” Crosby explains. “But every time he heals someone else, he has to take on their injury himself.”

Claude raises an eyebrow and mentally runs down the Penguins roster. Based on that information alone he’s got it narrowed down pretty quickly, but knows how important privacy is to the Gifted population so he’s not going to guess.

“He says he doesn’t mind doing it, especially when it helps the team a lot. But I’m worried about his career,” Crosby rambles on. “He can’t keep taking on these injuries all the time. He’s young, and what if he gets to the end of this contract and no one wants to sign him?”

Claude nods along, understanding where Crosby is coming from. One of the biggest fears throughout the Network is that any or all of them could lose their job simply because of who they are and what they can do.

“So…” Crosby looks at Claude, his hands grasping nervously at his pants. “Can you give me some advice or something? On how to handle this.”

Claude kinda wants to laughat him, honestly. He wants to tell Crosby to mind his own fucking business, and make fun of him for groveling to Claude of all people for help.

But.

But there’s a Gifted person’s career at stake here, and Crosby probably doesn’t know of any other Gifted players to turn to.

Claude can’t believe he’s about to help a couple of Penguins out.

“Look, I know you want to be everyone’s savior or whatever—”

Crosby scoffs and Claude shuts him up with a look.

“—but you can’t just tell him what to do. Gifted people…we’ve been hidden away for so long. For most of our lives we’re told to hide who we are, and even though sometimes that’s what’s safest for us, it’s not something we like to do. I think if he’s happy helping the team out, you should let him do his thing.”

Claude can see the argument forming in Crosby’s mouth, so he cuts him off before the words can come out.

“Maybe talk to him about being selective about the injuries he takes on,” he suggests. “If the injury is likely to land him on the IR, maybe suggest he let it go. But still let him take on little things so he doesn’t feel like you’re telling him not to be himself.”

Crosby hums and nods, and Claude hopes what he said made sense.

“Would you be willing to talk to him?” Crosby asks. “If he wanted to.”

“I’m not sure I’m the right guy for that,” Claude says with a laugh. “He might not want to take advice from a Flyer. But if he wants to talk to someone, I could pass along his number or something to another Gifted player who can help.”

“I think…maybe that could help,” Crosby says earnestly.

“You talk to him, okay?” Claude says. “Tell him he’s more than welcome to join the Network if he wants.”

Crosby nods and Claude feels like he’s done his part.

“Cool. Well, I’m just gonna…go. Yeah?” he asks.

“Yeah,” Crosby says. “Thanks.”

Claude salutes a bit and then shuffles out the door. When he gets to his room, Tyler gives him a questioning look, but Claude just shakes him off and hops into the shower, ready to wash away that whole awkward conversation and crawl in bed for the night.

Claude wants to say that’s the last bit of humanity he sees in Crosby. He really does. But unfortunately it’s not.

See, the problem with Claude’s Gift is that if he doesn’t transform about once a week or so, he has a hard time keeping control of his body.

It’s not a big deal when he’s at home, either in Ottawa or Hearst or Philadelphia. He’s got plenty of space in his back yards if he wants to shift into a larger animal, and he’s got understanding teammates for when he’s on the road for a long time. Ones that won’t give him too much shit for being super cuddly when he’s in his favorite wolf form.

But here, Claude isn’t sure about it. Yes, he’s got plenty of other Gifted players around him. But they’re not his guys, you know? He doesn’t know how they’ll react to him shifting. He sure as hell doesn’t know if he can get away with snuggling for a while. And Coots and Schenner, they’re here but they’ve got other things to worry about. He doesn’t want to inconvenience them.

With the stress of playing so many intense games, he can push it to about ten days. He’s gone eleven in a situation like this once, but that was in an extreme emergency.

On day nine, he finally feels his body breaking. His muscles ache way more than they should, and his bones feel like they’re ready to pop and contort any minute now. He’s trying to hide it, how much pain he’s in, but he knows he isn’t doing a good job of it. Eberle keeps giving him these meaningful looks that Claude is trying so hard to ignore.

He breathes a huge sigh of relief when Tyler announces that he and Hall are going to walk around the city together after lunch. Claude might not be able to get the cuddling he likes, but at least he’ll have the room to himself for a couple of hours. He’ll keep his animal choice to something hotel room-appropriate, and get a little bit of time in another form.

But Crosby has a different idea, and politely asks Claude in the elevator if he has time to talk. Claude can see the dubious looks on their teammates’ faces, specifically MacKinnon, and damn it he is not going to let Crosby make him look like a giant asshole for not “playing nicely” with each other.

He reluctantly agrees, following Crosby to his room despite his joints slipping between human and wolf form the whole way there. The transition from one form to another typically isn’t that painful, he’s been doing it for so long. And he certainly shifts into a wolf often enough that it’s almost like second nature for him. But holding it off like this, feeling his bones and muscles trying so hard to slip but having to hold back, is not fun at all.

“So I talked to my teammate,” Crosby says as soon as the door is closed. “He said he would like to talk to you about everything. He doesn’t want to do it now while we’re here, but he wanted to know if I could pass along your number. That way when he’s ready, he has it.”

Claude grimaces through a particularly strong urge to shift and nods. Crosby turns and crosses the room to plug his phone in.

“I know you were worried about him not wanting help from a Flyer, but I talked to him about it and he said that he doesn’t mind that it’s you,” Crosby continues. “I mean, I kinda told him that I trusted your advice on anything Gifted related so I think he knew it would be cool?”

Claude’s hips snap and he doubles over, letting out a groan. Crosby turns around sharply.

“Are you okay? Claude?” Crosby asks.

“I’m fine,” Claude is able to get out, though it’s an obvious lie.

“Are you sick? Hurt? Tell me what to do,” Crosby says.

“Nothing,” Claude insists. “Look, I just—can I go to my room? I haven’t shifted and I need to.”

“Yeah, I mean. Sure. If you think that’s safe,” Crosby says, placing a hand on Claude’s elbow.

Claude can’t even be bothered to pull away at this point, his transition is past his control at this point.

“Or—” Crosby pauses, his hand is warm on Claude’s elbow, “—or you could just shift here?”

Claude shakes his head, but his body says otherwise. He feels his back start to shift and he hunches over with a whimper, still trying hard to hold off until he gets to his room.

“Claude, seriously. It’s—it’s okay if you shift here. I can do whatever you need…or I can leave, whatever.”

“No,” Claude gasps. His body is convulsing and screaming at him and he’s tired of holding back and shit, if Crosby is willing to let him shift here he might as well go for it and have a body to cuddle with. “Just—get on the bed.”

Crosby quickly does as he’s told without any complaints, and Claude stumbles into the open space of the small living area before ripping at his clothes. He gets his pants and boxers off first, but fumbles with his shirt. His hands are turning into claws without his permission anyway, so he just shreds the shirt down the middle.

Once he’s naked he pushes the table to the side and finally gives in.

The pops of his bones snapping into place are loud in the otherwise quiet room, but with him no longer fighting the change it’s painless and easy. Claude’s eyes shut for the majority of the change, giving him the ability to focus on each part of his body individually to ensure a proper change. (One time when he was younger he lost focus in the middle of a change and ended up with his fingers still human at the end of his eagle’s wings. That was tough to correct and left him cringing whenever he saw feathers for a week.)

As soon as the shift is over, he collapses onto the floor. His body is exhausted, from both the shift and from holding it off for so long. He gives himself to the count of a hundred before slowly pushing up off the floor and opening his eyes.

The first thing he notices is that Crosby is exactly where he was before the shift happened—exactly where Claude told him to go—and is staring wide-eyed at him.

Claude stretches his body out, feeling his muscles sigh in relief, and meanders his way across the room to Crosby’s feet. He takes half a second to consider what he’s doing before he jumps up on the bed.

“So, uh, what do you need from me?” Crosby asks. Claude huffs and stares him down. “Oh, yeah. I guess you can’t respond, huh?”

Claude rolls his eyes the best his wolf body allows him to and nudges at Crosby’s shoulder with his snout. Crosby lets him push him into a laying position easily and Claude stretches out next to him, taking full advantage of the fact that their bodies are about the same length. Despite the thought that this is fucking Crosby of all people, Claude rests his head on his shoulder and lets out a deep breath.

“So, just this, then?” Crosby asks. “You don’t need, like, water or anything? Or…I don’t know. To go run around or something? Because I can help you sneak out or something if you want to—”

Claude shuts him up with a light brush of his teeth over Crosby’s bicep. He lifts his head and glares for a second before laying his head back down.

“Okay. I can…I can totally do this. This is cool,” Crosby continues.

Claude considers biting him again, but then Crosby threads his hand into the fur around Claude’s neck and starts rubbing at the sore spots and it feels really good and Claude is exhausted and his eyelids are really fucking heavy and maybe it’s not that important to shut Crosby’s babbling up.

He falls asleep quicker than he has since he got to Prague.

When he wakes up, Crosby has an episode of Friends on quietly and has settled in next to Claude’s body comfortably. He’s moved his hand from Claude’s neck to his head, where he’s scratching at Claude’s ears.

He feels more rested and rejuvenated than he has since he left Philly, and lets Crosby know he’s awake by repositioning slightly so he can see the television better. He catches sight of the clock on the table. He’s been asleep for a good two hours. Crosby pauses his hand a bit as he moves, but picks right back up once Claude is settled.

(Claude won’t think about how domestic this feels. He just won’t.)

They stay like that for the rest of the episode, and then Claude decides it’s time to become human again. His body feels great and if he waits any longer it’ll be harder mentally to pull himself back in.

He gets up to Crosby’s slight protests and stalks to the bathroom where the transition back to human is quick and effortless. He fills a glass of water from the sink and drains it quickly before refilling and heading back into the room.

When he gets out, Crosby has turned off the television and is picking up Claude’s clothes for him.

“You’re not going to be able to wear this again,” he says, holding out Claude’s shirt.

“Yeah, it’s not the first time I’ve ruined a shirt,” Claude admits.

He takes the fabric into his hand anyway, along with his boxers and pants, and pulls the latter two on.

“Are you okay?” Crosby asks.

“Yeah,” Claude says, and this time it’s the truth. “Yeah, thanks. I um—I really appreciate it. I guess I owe you one. I should explain—”

“Any time,” Crosby says, shaking his head. “Seriously.”

Claude nods and grabs his phone from where it landed on the couch when he shucked his clothes off. He thanks Crosby again before heading back to his room.

*****

When they win the gold, Claude celebrates by turning into a moose in the middle of the locker room. The guys love it, taking selfies with him and using his antlers to crack open more beer.

Later, in the privacy of Sid’s room, Claude shifts into the one animal he swore he would never turn into again after he got drafted. They’re both a little bit past drunk, but Sid still giggles at the sight of the penguin burrowing into the pillows.

As they fall asleep, Sid’s arms wrapped protectively around Claude’s small body, Claude can’t help but think maybe Sid isn’t nearly as bad as he thought.


	5. Jack Eichel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set the night before the 2015 NHL entry draft.

Jack is just casually hanging out on the roof of the hotel staring at the stars and decidedly not thinking about how much his life is going to change in the next twenty-four hours when a voice interrupts his peace and quiet.

“What are you doing up here?”

“I could asks you the same thing,” he says, not bothering to look behind him. He would know that voice anywhere.

“How did you get up here? The door was locked.”

“Again, I could ask you the same thing,” Jack says, rolling his eyes.

“I convinced a maid to give me a key.”

“Of course you did,” Jack says with a laugh. “The great McJesus can do whatever he wants.”

“I resent that name,” McDavid says quietly, sitting down on the ledge next to Jack with about a foot of space between them.

“You didn’t answer the question. What are you doing here?” Jack asks.

“You didn’t answer either of my questions,” McDavid retorts.

Jack snorts, but doesn’t answer.

“I just wanted some time to myself, I guess,” McDavid says after a moment. “It seems like everyone’s eyes have been on me this week and I just…I needed some time alone.”

“Sorry to disappoint you,” Jack says dryly, purposely not thinking about how he’s been feeling the exact same way.

McDavid doesn’t answer. Doesn’t have to, really. It’s funny, Jack has felt so bitter towards the guy for so long and yet here they are with much more in common than he thought. In a weird way, McDavid’s presence here seems fitting.

They sit there for a while, just staring up in silence at the Florida night sky together. Jack is starting to consider heading back to his room when a strong breeze blows off the water, shutting the door McDavid propped open.

“Shit,” McDavid says, jumping up and crossing the rooftop quickly. He pulls at the door, but it doesn’t budge. “Shit, it locks from the inside.”

He looks at Jack, panic in his eyes.

“I left my phone in my room, please tell me you have yours.”

“Nope,” Jack answers calmly.

“Oh fuck, we’re stuck,” McDavid says, starting to pace.  
“Calm down,” Jack says simply. “We’re fine.”

“Does someone know you’re up here?” McDavid asks. “Hanifin?”

“Nope. Hanny’s out to dinner with his family,” Jack says. “But we’re fine.”

“No we’re not!” McDavid yells. “The door is locked, no one knows we’re up here, and neither of us have our phones. We could die up here before someone finds us!”

Apparently McDavid has a flare for the dramatic off the ice just as much as he does on it. Jack tries hard not to roll his eyes. He really does. It doesn’t work.

“Dude, stop freaking out. My room is three floors down from here. Give me the key and I’ll just go down and unlock the door for you,” he says.

McDavid looks at him, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion. Jack stares back at him, not willing to be the first to break eye contact.

“That sounds like a great idea,” McDavid says sarcastically. “Except how are you going to get down there?”

“I’ll fly,” Jack says.

“That’s not funny,” McDavid says. “And it’s not helping the fact that we’re stuck up here.”

Jack wrinkles his nose.

“I wasn’t joking,” he says. “I’ll just fly down and go in through my balcony. That’s how I got up here anyway.”

“Yeah, because normal people can just fly,” McDavid says, and honestly Jack is starting to get sick of the snark in his voice.

“Normal people can’t,” Jack concedes. “But I’m not normal.”

McDavid quirks an eyebrow.  
“Seriously?” Jack asks. “Are you really the only person in the world who doesn’t know I’m Gifted?” The shock that crosses McDavid’s face immediately tells Jack that no, he didn’t know.

Which. You know what? That’s so fucking appropriate. Jack knows everything about Connor McJesus McDavid. Not because he wants to, but because the media and fans and the hockey community in general have been pushing him into Jack’s face for years. But of course McDavid hasn’t even heard about the most commonly known thing about Jack. Because why would he? No one is ever going to bother asking the next Great One about anything other than himself.

Jack would be more disgusted if he wasn’t completely unsurprised.

“Just give me the key,” he says, sticking out his hand.

McDavid passes it over slowly and Jack is careful to avoid skin contact as he grabs it. He doesn’t say anything else, just walks to the edge of the roof and lets himself float down to where his balcony door is waiting for him.

(He totally doesn’t consider leaving McDavid up there. Honestly.)

“You really can fly,” McDavid say as soon as Jack opens the door.

“Only for the last eight years of my life,” Jack says with a shrug. He leads the way down the small flight of stairs.

“I really didn’t know that.”

“There’s a lot you probably don’t know about me,” Jack says.

They get to the first landing, the top floor of rooms that are actually a bunch of suites, and Jack starts to continue down until McDavid clears his throat.

“This, uh…this is me,” he says, pointing to the door.

Jack snorts.

“Of course you got one of the nicest rooms in the hotel,” he says with a harsh bite.

“I didn’t ask for it,” McDavid says defensively. And with the way he’s closing in on himself, Jack almost feels bad for being so harsh to the guy. Jack isn’t about to apologize for the way he feels about the whole situation, but. Well. Maybe he doesn’t have to be as rough with the kid. McDavid is right, he didn’t ask for this. He hasn’t asked for any of it. Jack sighs. He hates having to be nice when he doesn’t want to.  
“Good night, McJesus,” he says as nicely as he can. “And good luck tomorrow.”

“Thanks, Jack,” McDavid says quietly. “You, too.”

“See you on the ice.”

*****

When they finally meet on the ice for the first time (later than they were supposed to, thanks to McDavid’s injury) Jack almost feels like smiling across the circle at him.

“Good luck, McJesus,” he says with a smirk.

Jack wins the face off.


	6. Roberto Luongo

Aaron has never been comfortable on planes. He watched some movie when he was younger (he doesn't even know what it was now) but the plane crashed and then the next week he had to fly to Toronto and there was a lot of turbulence and...yeah. Aaron just really doesn't like planes.  
  
Of course that makes the idea of the whole NHL lifestyle thing a little hard for him, with the traveling all the time and stuff.  
  
His first flight with the Panthers is fairly short, they're just going to Dallas. But he's still so nervous that it's pretty obvious to the guys around him as they're boarding.  
  
"You really don't have to be worried about anything happening to our plane," Willie says with a sly smirk, dropping into the seat behind him.  
  
"You don't know that," Aaron whispers more to himself.  
  
"Lu, the rookie is afraid of flying," Jags calls up to the front of the plane, which--that's so not cool. Jagr is a fucking legend and Aaron really doesn't want him thinking any less of him just because of a little fear.  
  
Lu stops in the aisle between Aaron and Willie, surveys him for a moment, and then drops his bag on the floor under the seat next to him.  
  
Aaron doesn't say a word, watching as Lu and everyone else gets settled into their seats. It's not until they're taxiing to the runway that Lu rests a hand on Aaron's shaking leg.  
  
"Kid, as long as I'm on the plane, you'll never have to worry about anything happening," he says.  
  
Aaron quirks an eyebrow, silently asking him to elaborate.  
  
"I'm Gifted," Lu explains. "I can control technology. I can tell our plane to work perfectly and it will."  
  
"Really?" Aaron asks.  
  
Lu reaches over and takes Aaron's phone from his hand. He just holds it for a moment before handing it back. Aaron doesn't know what to do with that.  
  
"Unlock it," Lu says, gesturing to the phone.  
  
Aaron does, and the first thing he sees is an open text message to Lu's number. It just says 'Really.'  
  
*****  
  
Flying without Lu is still a bitch, even if he gets a lot better at reading the sounds and movements of a normal flight thanks to Lu's patient explanations. But as long as Lu is on the plane, Aaron always feels free to relax and just enjoy the ride.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lu's Gift is pretty much as advertised, he can control technology. He has to be touching the device he wants to control, though.


	7. Johnny Gaudreau

The first time Johnny disappears is on a flight home from Anaheim.

They had just gotten to cruising altitude and Sean decided he wanted to talk to Johnny about the power play for just a minute before he passed out in his seat. And after a tough shootout loss tonight, Sean knew that left him with little time.

Johnny always sits four rows ahead of Sean, in the seat closest to the window. But when Sean gets there, the seat is empty. Johnny’s stuff is there, just not Johnny.

Sean looks around, but can’t seem to spot him talking to anyone else.

“Hey, you seen Johnny?” he asks Gio, sitting across the aisle.

“Not since takeoff,” he says simply.

“You know where Johnny went?” Sean asks Boller, sitting right in front of Johnny’s seat. Boller just shakes his head.

“Probably went to take a piss,” he says before putting his headphones in.

It’s a reasonable explanation, but Sean would have seen Johnny walk past him to get to the bathroom. Which he didn’t.

“You can talk to your girlfriend later,” Gio says. “But now go sit down so we can all sleep.”

Sean huffs a sigh, but returns to his seat anyway. The bathroom is occupied, so maybe he just missed Johnny going past him? It doesn’t sound right, but maybe. He’ll just wait for Johnny to be done and grab him on the way back to his seat.

Except Sean passes out before Johnny is done, which is like a whole ten minutes later.

Sean starts noticing that Johnny disappears often.

At team dinners, when the rounds of chirping begin to become heavy. After a tough loss at home against the Rangers when the media starts to swarm in. Multiple times on planes after a long game, win or lose. And even in their own apartment, before dinner or after a nap.

Sean feels like he hardly sees Johnny anymore, which is funny since they spend just about all their time together. It’s as if Johnny’s avoiding him.

Sean is almost relieved to do a stupid media video with Johnny, just because it means they’re finally spending some time together. They’re just reading fans’ questions to each other for a video and there are cameras and lights all around them, but at least they’re together. (Okay, maybe he’s a bit more attached to Johnny than he thought…)

“Sun or snow?” he asks, already knowing Johnny’s answer

“Sun. Hot dogs or hamburgers?”

“Hamburgers,” he says, knowing Johnny already knew that as well.

(Though let’s be honest here, so far there hasn’t been a question they don’t know each other’s answer to yet.)

“Cats or dogs?”

“Both,” Johnny says. He pauses before asking the next one. “Flying or invisibility?”

“Huh,” Johnny says. He’s actually gotta think about this one. “They’re both pretty cool.”

“You gotta pick one,” Johnny chirps, though Sean can see a little bit of apprehension in his face. It’s almost as if Johnny is personally invested in this decision.

“I guess invisibility,” he says.

The way Johnny’s face lights up, he clearly got the answer right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case it isn't clear, Johnny's Gift is invisibility.


	8. Daniel and Henrik Sedin

September 26, 1990 was the scariest day of both Henrik and Daniel Sedin’s lives.

Finding out that you and your twin brother are Gifted is one thing. Finding out that you both have the same Gift is not a surprise at all. But finding out that there are rules to when you can and cannot use your Gift, and that there could be severe consequences for your actions, is terrifying.

The Women in White never give them their names, despite them asking for it (hence the name Women in White, since they’re always wearing the same white dress). But on their tenth birthday, they appear out of nowhere and sit them down to warn them both gravely of the severity of their Gift.

When you’re a kid, you always think that time travel would be one of the coolest Gifts to have. To have the ability to go back into the past and change things, or to go into the future and know what’s coming in life sounds like a dream come true.

As far was Henrik and Daniel are concerned, it’s not.

The first thing they do is explain the rules of the Gift to them. First, they are only able to travel through time if they are together. The Gift of time travel is only given to identical twins for this reason. Second, they are only allowed to travel when they are visited by the Women in White. Should they choose to travel without express permission, they could not only alter the course of history, but could face serious punishment.

The next thing they do is teach Henrik and Daniel how to travel. They tell them exactly what to think, how to intertwine their hands the correct way, and the latin phrase to chant.

For their first travel, the Women in White show them a photo of a movie theater in America and tell them to think about the theater on February 7, 2004. They hand Daniel two tickets and say they should watch the movie, and when it is over, immediately return back to this time and place. They are not to go anywhere else or say anything to anyone other than each other.

The movie is called The Butterfly Effect, and it terrifies both of them more than the Women in White did.

Daniel and Henrik are only visited by the Women in White a few times in their lives. Each time, the women give them a time and place to travel to, and tell them what to do. They carry out the task, and then immediately return to their own time.

They haven’t been visited by the Women in White in a long time, maybe eight years, when they show up in Henrik’s hotel room in Washington, DC. They seem shaken up, which puts both Daniel and Henrik on edge immediately. Over the years, the Women in White have never been anything but stoic and emotionless.

“You must stall the end of your game tonight,” they say. “The game must not end until after 10:07 or there will be grave consequences.”

They don’t say much else. They can’t, or they could do more damage than good. But their attitudes are enough that Daniel and Henrik know they’re serious.

They do their best to stall time. They stop play often, even if it means sending soft shots directly into Holtby’s glove and, in one instance, taking a dumb penalty. As time is running out, they’re down by one and it seems as though they aren’t going to make it happen. It’s now 9:48 and they can’t seem to break through the Capitals defense in order to even the score.

But Daniel and Henrik haven’t failed on a single assignment yet, and they aren’t going to now.

Daniel strips Wilson of the puck in the neutral zone with just over a minute left in regulation and he spots Henrik moving quickly up his side. They split off, knowing that will give them the best opportunity to make this work.

Daniel passes quickly to Henrik when he notices Chimera coming up on him. He narrowly avoids getting crushed into the boards and slips by. The clock is ticking down, but if they can give it one last push, they can do it.

Henrik dekes a defender and Daniel skates hard to the net. Henrik takes the shot, but Holtby sees it the whole way through. The rebound comes straight to Daniel’s tape and the next thing he knows, the light is on and Henrik is tackling him into the boards.

Four seconds are left on the clock.

The game goes into overtime, but even with the extra few minutes Daniel and Henrik know they have to push the clock still. They’ve made it to 9:57 now they have to make the game last another nine minutes.

Daniel gets a nice shot in overtime, but he has to hit the post instead. It hurts to know he just purposely gave up a beautiful overtime winner, but he knows it will hurt more if he scored it.

They end up going into a shoot out, which is a huge relief. It’s 10:04 when the shootout starts, and Daniel and Henrik have played enough hockey games in their lifetime that they know they’ve made it happen. The game will last at least until 10:07, and they will have succeeded.

The next morning, when they wake up in their hotel room in Philly, the story of the suicide bomber who got caught waiting outside of the Verizon Center for the president is all over the news.

Daniel turns off the television and he and Henrik share a wide-eyed look. They have used their Gift in the past to change minor events, but never before have they saved someone’s life, let alone the president of the United States.

Henrik sends a quick text to coach that neither of them are going to be at optional skate this morning and they both pull the covers back up over their heads.

They’ve earned today day off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're enjoying this, please leave a comment and let me know! :)


	9. Eddie Lack and Jeff Skinner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eddie learned quickly to read Jeff’s moods based on the weather. It’s pretty easy, since most of the time Jeff and the weather are both sunny and warm.

Eddie learned quickly to read Jeff’s moods based on the weather. It’s pretty easy, since most of the time Jeff and the weather are both sunny and warm.

It’s the days where he wakes up expecting sun and Raleigh is blanketed by clouds and looks like it’s about to rain that he worries.

Eddie doesn’t like saying much. He’s shy, and doesn’t always trust his english. But he tries his hardest to cheer all his teammates up the way best he knows how.

Those cloudy and rainy days are the ones that Eddie convinces the stray cat in their apartment building to sneak into Jeff’s living room and give him a couple extra snuggles. And he sends the birds to sit outside of Jeff’s window and sing beautiful songs to him.

When those don’t help the weather look nicer, Eddie will sneak a bunny into the locker room and convince it to stay in Jeff’s stall and hopefully be cute enough to at least make him smile.

The day Eric gets traded is really tough for the whole team. He’s one of the best captains many of them have ever known. For some, like Jeff, he’s the only captain they’ve ever known.

Eddie is mostly worried about Jeff and Jordan. The two of them seem to be hit the hardest by the trade, so when practice is over Eddie lets in a cute little chipmunk to sit on Jordan’s chair, and sneaks a turtle from the pond behind the practice rink into Jeff’s locker. 

He knows it doesn’t fix the fact that Eric is gone. But the slight break in Jordan’s scowl when he sees the chipmunk makes Eddie feel a little better.

Jeff is a harder nut to crack. Maybe because Eric was the only captain he’s ever had, and maybe Jeff feels like he’s being abandoned.

Eddie remembers feeling that way when Lu got traded.

There isn’t much Eddie can do for him, besides try to just make him smile. So he invites Jeff to the aquarium after practice is over with the promise of getting his favorite fish to say hi.

Eddie wanted to go to the zoo, since zoos are his favorite places to go. But the weather is cloudy and rainy, and Eddie knows it won’t be changing for a while.

They end up making it a group outing, which means Eddie can’t focus all his attention on making just Jeff and Jordan smile, but he does his best to spread the love around, And when he’s able to convince the group of sharks to hang out near them, it makes everyone happy, which makes Eddie happy too.

Jordan especially loves the way the stingrays glide gracefully through the water, so Eddie gets them to swim around for a while, mesmerizing Jordan and a few little kids. And Jeff likes the creatures of the deep exhibit, so Eddie spends a while with him there.

It was a horrible start to the day, but at the end of the trip, they walk out of the aquarium to find that the rain has stopped, and the sun is trying to peak through the clouds. Eddie thinks that’s worth claiming this as a success.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If it isn't completely obvious: Jeff's Gift is the ability to control the weather, and Eddie's is the ability to talk to animals.


	10. Vladimir Tarasenko

Vladimir loves St. Louis. 

Not just because the fans are great and the organization is welcoming. But also because the city itself has a personality that he gets along with well.

St. Louis is relaxed and calm, and yet has a busy part to it where it never gets boring, not like some cities he’s been in before. The city accepts him easily, as though he’s always been part of it. It shares with him it’s excitement when the Blues win, and it’s condolences when they lose.

It’s made itself home for him, and he couldn’t be happier to be there.

The city Vladimir dislikes the most is Chicago, which really shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.

Chicago is harsh, and often starts yelling at him before their plane even touches down on the tarmac. It doesn’t like the Blues being within it’s city limits, and isn’t afraid to share it’s feelings with the one person who has to listen.

Chicago is also extremely busy and loud. It’s not as busy as New York, but at least New York recognizes that outsiders aren’t used to it’s lifestyle and tries to keep quiet for him. Chicago doesn’t care, often making sure that Vladimir hears every little thing happening throughout the night before a game. Vladimir is convinced the city never wants him to sleep a second when he’s within it’s limits.

Los Angeles is also one of his least favorite cities. It’s busy, too, but the main problem with spending the night within LA’s borders is that the city never seems to stop thinking about itself. Los Angeles would keep Vladimir up until the early hours of the morning, telling him all the great things about itself, if he didn’t explicitly tell it that he has to get some sleep.

Even then, LA sometimes continues to talk about itself until he’s able to fall asleep.

One of the cities Vladimir loves to visit most during the season is Boston. Mainly because Boston reminds him a lot of his own hometown of Yaroslavl, Russia.

It’s not just the population size, which is pretty similar. It’s also the overall personality of the city that leaves him feeling slightly less homesick. Boston, like home, is a hard-working city. It isn’t fancy or anything like New York or Moscow. The city itself is calm, respectful, and tends to mind it’s own business.

Vladimir likes that after the games, if one of his teammates got hurt, the city will check up on them with him. Boston has had it’s fair share of pain and injury, so it knows what’s important at the end of the day is health and happiness, not who won or lost.

Vladimir also likes the cities that have a lot of water near them. For example, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, which both have a great deal of rivers, are two of the NHL cities he enjoys being in. (He’s not sure he’s supposed to say he enjoys being in both cities, especially not while in either of them. But he does.)

Having water nearby gives cities a kind of flowing relaxation to their personalities, and an energy that isn’t present in land-locked parts of the world.

At the end of the day, though, nothing is better to Vladimir than returning to St. Louis after a long road trip. He’s returning to the fans that support him, the organization that is always behind him, and the city that absolutely adores him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, this might not be completely clear.
> 
> Vladimir's Gift is the ability to communicate with cities.


	11. Jordan Eberle and Ryan Nugent Hopkins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jordan and Taylor deal with Taylor's trade.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while since I updated this and this chapter is super short, so I'm sorry. Inspiration to write has been tough to find lately.

When Taylor gets traded, Ryan locks himself in his room and refuses to come out for days. Jordan doesn’t blame him, he feels like locking himself away too. They both had such close relationships with Taylor, Jordan because they lived together and Ryan because they were the “first overall pick who’s going to turn the Oilers around” together.

Ryan locking himself away would be a much bigger problem if Jordan couldn’t just walk through the door to get to him. Ryan still won’t talk, but at least this way Jordan can bring him food and water and make sure he’s still alive.

“Your plants are starting to look sick,” Jordan says about four days after the trade.

It’s a stretch, but Jordan has tried everything to get Ryan up out of bed. Pulling the plants card is his last resort. But he knows there’s nothing more important to Ryan than his plants, so he goes with it anyway.

It’s a good call, because it gets Ryan to at least look up at him. His hair is sticking up form where he’s been pressed against the pillow.

“That one by the refrigerator is starting to turn a little brown.”

Ryan sits up and rubs his hand over his face.

“I think the one in the living room by the window is super dry, too.”

Ryan grumbles and throws the sheets back off his body. He still hasn’t said anything, but Jordan knows he hit the right note.

Jordan follows Ryan out to the kitchen, where he runs his finger along one of the leaves of the plant by the refrigerator.

“It says you’ve been taking care of it,” Ryan says softly, looking around at all the plants in the kitchen. “You’ve been taking care of all of them.”

“Yeah,” Jordan says with a little shrug. “I lied.”

Ryan strokes the flower on another plant, and some of the tension bleeds out of his shoulders.

“My gardenia says you’ve been taking care of them the way you’ve been taking care of me.”

Jordan just shrugs again and Ryan sighs.

“Ryan, look. I know it’s tough losing Taylor. I understand what you’re feeling because I’m going through it, too. But we still have each other and we’re going to be okay without him,” Jordan says, hoping he’s getting his point across.

“I guess,” Ryan says softly.

“Hey,” Jordan says, wrapping a hand around Ryan’s wrist. “It’s going to be okay.”

Ryan takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly.

“I know,” he says. “It’ll be weird, but it’ll be okay.”

Jordan smiles and squeezes Ryan’s wrist a little. He’s right, it will be weird. Especially the first game when he’s suiting up and Taylor isn’t right next to him. But hockey is a business and they knew this was going to happen to one of them eventually.

Jordan and Ryan will get through this together, though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jordan can walk through walls and Ryan can talk to plants.


	12. Jimmy Howard and Dylan Larkin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dylan is nervous before his first NHL game, Jimmy blows off some adrenaline after.

Jimmy Howard has a problem. A huge problem.

He lost the new rookie.

Look, it’s not his fault, okay? He knew Dylan was at the arena. He brought him here himself. He walked with him to the locker room. He watched the kid sit down in his seat. He kept an eye on him, and all was good. Until it wasn’t.

As soon as the Wings drafted Dylan, they started pushing the two of them together. It might be an unusual pairing, the rookie forward with the veteran goalie, but since they’re both Gifted, it makes sense.

“Hey, have you seen Larks?” Abby asks.

“I brought him in,” Jimmy says, gesturing to the bags by Dylan’s stall.

“Probably having himself a moment,” Abby says. “First game, and all.”

Jimmy nods his agreement. He knows the feeling—they all do. The first game of the season always comes with a whole lot of emotions, and combining that with his first NHL game ever is probably leaving a lot of stress on Dylan’s shoulders.

“I’ll go find him,” Jimmy says.

“Better make it quick,” Abby says with a smirk.

Jimmy punches him in the shoulder lightly and chuckles. He’s the only guy on the team other than Dylan who knows what Jimmy’s Gift is, and never fails to have fun teasing him over it.

“Be back in a flash,” Jimmy jokes back.

He combs through the many hallways in the underbelly of the Joe Louis arena, searching for his rookie. It takes him a long time, but eventually he spots a sign that Dylan is here. He walks down the hallway and sits on top of one of the giant storage boxes right next to what looks like free-standing clothing.

“First game jitters?” he asks.

“Yeah,” a small voice answers.

“How about you become visible again and we can chat,” he offers.

There’s a sigh and then Dylan is fading back into the empty space around the clothes. Jimmy pats the storage box and Dylan climbs up to sit next to him.

“There’s a lot of hype around you, kid,” he states.

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Dylan says softly.

“We’ve all been there before. I understand that feeling. But I think there wouldn’t be any of that hype if you weren’t worth it. You’re a damn good player and you’re going to make waves in this league. You just need to relax and remember to just go out there and do your thing.”

“That’s easy to say,” Dylan says with a small laugh.

“Easy to say, harder to do,” Jimmy says with a smile. “I get it. But kid, you gotta just believe in yourself here.”

“Confidence is key, huh?”

“Yeah.” Jimmy elbows him a little. “And hey, if it helps? I know a whole group of guys who believe in you, too.”

Dylan smiles and Jimmy claps a hand over his shoulder.

“Come on, kid. We’ve got a game to win,” he says.

 

_X_

 

They do win, which is awesome. But what’s even better is Dylan’s first NHL goal.

It’s a thing of beauty, placed right over Bernier’s shoulder. It’s the Wings’ third goal of the game, and even though it’s only the second period, it’s what puts the nail in the coffin for the rest of the game. The whole team knows they’re going to win, and so does the crowd.

“Nice goal,” Jimmy says on the way to his car. Dylan is smiling big, which is nice to see.

“Nice shut out,” Dylan says in response. Jimmy laughs.

“Good game over all.”

They get into the car and Jimmy starts the familiar drive out of the arena.

“Hey,” he says suddenly. “I’ve got a lot of energy left. Wanna head to the track with me?”

Dylan looks over, surprised. The track is Jimmy’s place to run, and very few people are invited to go with him when he decides to let off a little steam. He usually goes late at night, when no one else will be around. Abby hasn’t even gone with him, and he’s known about Jimmy’s Gift for years.

“Really?” Dylan asks, eyes wide.

“Yeah, why not?”

“Okay,” Dylan says.

Jimmy makes an early exit off the highway and heads towards Hazel Park Raceway. It’s a little bit out of the way, but that’s why he chose it in the first place. That and the owner is also Gifted, which made it easy to get him to agree to give Jimmy a spare key and the alarm code.

The rest of the drive is quiet besides the pop music coming through the speakers and pretty soon Jimmy is pulling into the back entrance to the raceway.

They get out and Jimmy pulls off his suit right there in the parking lot to change into some workout clothes and sneakers. Dylan gives him a look, but Jimmy just leads them to the door.

“I’m not planning on going supersonic,” he says, answering Dylan’s unasked question as he unlocks the door and turns off the alarm. “So I don’t need any special clothes other than this.”

“Oh,” Dylan says, nodding his head. “When I want to go completely invisible I have to wear nothing. It’s really awkward.”

Jimmy glances over at him and Dylan looks like he’s really regretting saying that. Jimmy figures it would probably be embarrassing to admit something like that, so he cuts the kid some slack.

“The first time I went supersonic, I burned all my clothes off. I also found out going supersonic drains all my energy and I had to jog back home through the streets of my neighborhood completely naked.”

Dylan snorts and Jimmy feels a smile tug at the corners of his mouth. He can admit it’s funny, now.

“I’m so lucky it was in the middle of the night.”

Jimmy flips the switch for just a few of the lights around the track and takes a deep breath. The raceway always smells like horse manure and dirt, but over the past few years he’s gotten used to it. He leads them to the entryway and turns to Dylan.

“You can come on the track if you want,” he offers. “Or you can stay in the stands.”

“I think I’ll stay in the stands,” Dylan says, eyeing the comfy chairs to their right.

Jimmy nods and makes his way to the track. He’s still feeling pretty stretched out from the game, so he just does a quick precursory stretch and starts to jog around the track.

“Am I supposed to be impressed by this?” Dylan shouts out from his place in the stands. “My mom can run faster than that.”

Jimmy laughs and picks up the pace a little.

“Just warming up, kid,” he calls back.

He picks it up to about a normal person’s sprint to finish out the rest of the lap and from there picks it up even more. By the second lap, he’s going about the speed of a horse, and by the third he’s well past the speed any mammal on Earth can produce.

It feels great, finally letting his legs do what they’re meant to after a while of keeping them pent up. His blood is pumping freely and he feels like he could fly, almost, if he could run upwards instead of normally.

He slows down after about ten laps. He knows better than to push it too far, especially since he hasn’t had anything to eat since before the game.

“Okay, so that definitely was impressive,” Dylan says as Jimmy finally gets back to his starting point. “And you’re not even breathing hard. Can I ask a question?”

“Sure,” Jimmy says, climbing the stairs to join him in the stands.

“Can you run on water?”

Jimmy snorts and shakes his head.

“I’ve never actually tried,” he admits. “But I probably can.”

“Sick,” Dylan murmurs.

“I’ll tell you what,” Jimmy says. “Next offseason, come visit my place in New York and we’ll try it out.”

“Done,” Dylan says, looking every bit of his young nineteen years of age.

When management first came to Jimmy with the idea to pair the rookie with him, he wasn’t sure if he liked the idea. He wasn’t sure if he was the right choice. But as he leads Dylan out of the raceway to his car, he thinks maybe this wasn’t a bad choice after all. He could definitely get used to having the kid around.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jimmy Howard's Gift is super speed and Dylan Larkin's Gift is invisibility.


	13. Brandon Saad and Nick Leddy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brandon has to leave for the World Cup.

“You’re thinking too loud,” Brandon says softly.

He’s wrapped around Nick, the two of them snuggled up in Nick’s New York apartment bedroom. Brandon is rubbing his hand up and down Nick’s side.

“Isn’t that supposed to be my line?” Nick asks with a little laugh.

Brandon hums and pulls Nick’s body back into him.

“Seriously, what’s up?” he asks.

Nick sighs. He knows Brandon well enough that he doesn’t have to read Brandon’s mind in order to know he’s genuinely worried. He has reason to, Nick has been off all day, which has made him quieter and more reserved than normal. It was too much to ask for Brandon to just ignore it, and he knows better than to keep his feelings secret. Brandon deserves to know what’s going on inside Nick’s mind.

“I’m just not excited for the start of the season,” he admits. “I mean, I am. Because it’s hockey, you know? But I’m also…really not.”

Brandon presses his lips to the back of Nick’s neck.

“I know,” he says softly. “I miss you so much when we’re apart. And it doesn’t help that I’m leaving earlier than normal for the World Cup.”

“I’m so proud of you,” Nick says quietly. “You know that, right?”

“Yeah,” Brandon says.

“That’s why I feel so guilty being upset that you’re leaving me already.”

“Babe,” Brandon murmurs, nuzzling into the back of Nick’s neck. “Read my mind right now.”

“What?” Nick asks.

“Seriously,” Brandon says. “I know you don’t like to do it, especially with me. But please.”

Nick sighs and threads his fingers through Brandon’s. He closes his eyes and centers in on Brandon.

“ _Nick,_ ” is the first thing he hears. “ _Leaving Nick is the worst. Team USA is stupid. Leaving Nick hurts every time. Why didn’t they want Nick? Then I wouldn’t really have to leave Nick. Toronto isn’t going to be that fun anyway. I just don’t want to leave Nick. What if I get hurt during this stupid tournament? Maybe then I can hide out here while I heal. Stop thinking about getting hurt, you’re supposed to be showing Nick how much you love him._ ”

“Brandon,” Nick says with a little gasp, cutting off the dialogue coming from Brandon’s mind.

He turns around so they’re face to face and snuggles into Brandon’s shoulder.

“I love you so much,” Brandon says.

“I love you, too,” Nick mumbles.

“It sucks that I have to leave, trust me I don’t want to,” Brandon says.

“I know,” Nick says with a sigh. “But you have to.”

“We didn’t sign up for this. When we first started this, we thought we were going to be in Chicago together for a while. But when you got traded, I said I didn’t want to give us up and I stand by that. I never want to give you up.”

“I don’t either,” Nick agrees. “It’s you and me forever.”

“Exactly. I—wait a second.”

Brandon shifts a bit and the lamp on the bedside table turns on. Nick gets a better glance at his face and recognizes the look that means that Brandon is trying to bring something to himself.

Brandon’s bag by the door unzips and a small box comes towards them, landing gently in Brandon’s hand.

“I snuck away the other day and got this for you. I was going to wait, I don’t know…until probably next summer? Or the All-Star weekend, if we got to go on vacation together. But I don’t want to wait any longer.”

Brandon opens the box and Nick catches a glimpse of something shiny. Brandon takes a ring out of the box and closes it.

“It’s you and me forever, right Nick?” he asks. Nick nods, understanding washing over him. “So let’s make it official. Nick Leddy, will you marry me?”

“Yeah,” Nick chokes out, his throat suddenly backed up with emotion. “Yeah, B. I—yeah.”

Brandon reaches down for Nick’s hand, sliding the ring on his finger.

“You don’t know how happy this makes me,” he says.

“I think I might have an idea,” Nick returns with a smile. “Kiss me?”

Brandon beams and leans in to press their lips together. Taking Brandon to the airport and saying good bye tomorrow is still going to suck. Playing the upcoming season with Brandon in a different city and trying to juggle two NHL schedules with practices and traveling in order to find a few minutes to FaceTime is still going to be hard. But Nick thinks maybe, with this silver band around his finger, it might be a little easier.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was much fluffier than I originally intended. My bad.
> 
> Nick can read minds and Brandon has telekinesis.


	14. Phil Kessel and Carl Hagelin

Phil never told anyone outside his immediate family about his Gift, but sometimes he feels like the whole world knows about it anyway. They don’t, of course. The Kessels have kept it a very safe secret since he presented. It would be practically impossible for anyone to know.

The Bruins management knows, of course. Phil had to tell them when he was drafted. They weren’t too fond of having him on their team, he could tell. There weren’t any other Gifted players there, at least not that he could tell. And Phil got pretty good at distinguishing who had the potential to be Gifted over the years, since he spent so much time making sure he never gave off the same vibes. It’s no wonder the Bruins shipped him off to another team as soon as they could, though.

The Leafs management knows, too, obviously. He had to tell them when he got traded. They weren’t as obvious about their distaste for people like him, at least not at first. But he could tell they didn’t really want him there. Every waking moment spent in Toronto made that obvious from the constant barrage from the media. It was tough, all those years in Toronto. It made Phil want to just throw walls up (almost literally) and shut everyone out. There were time where he did, actually. Which meant he also had to explain to Bozie why there were times when an invisible forcefield was keeping him from getting into their living room.

Then he got traded to the Penguins, and Phil had to tell yet another team about his Gifted status. Yet another team in on the secret, and yet more people he has to constantly worry about leaking it to the world. So maybe technically it’s not as much of a secret as Phil likes to think, since management of three different NHL teams plus a former teammate know about his Gift. That’s a lot of people who have reason to dislike him.

The Penguins are different, though. Phil can tell right off the bat. Before he even gets the chance to tell them about himself, he’s sat down with Mario Lemieux (which is pretty cool) and Sidney Crosby (which is pretty awkward) and basically given a shovel talk about the organization’s accepting stance towards Gifted people. It makes the admission of his own Gift to Lemieux much easier, later on when it’s just the two of them in Lemieux’s office.

The move to Pittsburgh is a lot easier than Phil thought it would be. It’s also a lot harder than he expected at the same time. He gets to take Stella with him, but he’s leaving behind a city he’s been a part of for so long and teammates he’d actually become comfortable with. He’s leaving behind a best friend who knows about him, and that’s something he isn’t sure how he’s going to handle it.

It helps when he finds out he’s not the only player on the team who has a Gift. He watches as Geno goes down in practice with what seems like a very serious shoulder injury. He has to be helped off the ice and everything. But after practice, it’s completely gone. Phil is confused at first. But when he sees Beau, who had a seemingly uneventful practice, walking out of the athletic trainer’s office in a sling, the pieces start to put themselves together.

Phil doesn’t want to say anything, but he catches Sid watching him watch Beau get dressed and when Sid asks to go to lunch together, he knows he’s not going to be able to keep his secret for long.

“The Penguins are extremely supportive of Gifted people,” Sid says bluntly after they’ve ordered. “I know we had this discussion earlier, but you need to know that it wasn’t just us saying words. We have Gifted people in the front office, on the coaching staff, on the medical team, and there’s even a player. If that’s a problem for you, I need to know now.”

Phil chuckles a bit to himself at the irony of that statement.

“It’s not a problem,” he assures Sid.

“I'm serious, Phil,” Sid says.

Phil rolls his eyes. He understands the organization’s stance on Gifted people—appreciates it, even. And the idea that he wouldn’t is insulting.

“So am I,” he says simply.

It would probably be easier to just tell Sid about his Gift. Obviously he’s not the kind of person who would have a problem with it. Sidney Crosby is about the most private person in the league, so Phil can probably trust that he won’t tell anyone. And it would definitely kill whatever notion he has that Phil isn’t completely okay with Gifted people.

But Phil isn’t looking to share such a private part of himself just yet. Not with someone he barely knows, even if it is his captain and someone he logically knows he can trust. So Phil keeps his head down, stays quiet, and tries his best not to pay a whole lot of attention to Beau Bennett.

It’s hard, though. Especially when he watches as Beau goes from day-to-day to the IR to the long term IR with Geno’s injury. Phil takes a look into Beau’s past and sees it’s littered with injuries, most of which he’s guessing weren’t his own. He wants to say something, he really does. But he feels like maybe it’s not his place? He doesn’t know Beau, not really. And if he wants to say something without coming off like a complete dick, he’d have to tell Beau about himself. So Phil continues to keep his thoughts to himself.

It’s almost easy for Phil to forget that he’s Gifted. Unlike most people like him, Phil doesn’t really use his Gift that often. He chooses not to, a habit he started in order to keep his status on the down low. He doesn’t like his Gift, really. He already feels so isolated from everyone around him, why would he want to put a literal forcefield between him and others?

So Phil puts his Gift and everything going on with Beau in the back of his mind and focuses solely on playing hockey. Just as he tried to do in Boston and Toronto.

The crazy thing is, it actually works here in Pittsburgh.

Phil gets put on a line with Carl Hagelin and Nick Bonino and… something just clicks between them. It’s like they’re all sharing a brain or something, they just know where each other is. It feels amazing.

Carl invites Phil and Nick out to a bar after a game, to celebrate, and Phil doesn’t even hesitate to agree. Which just shows how comfortable he’s feeling, since even Bozie had a hard time getting Phil to do anything social and they were roommates.

Carl chooses a dive bar a few blocks over from the arena, and Phil is relieved to find it’s not super busy or super loud when they walk in. Maybe because it’s the middle of the week. A few people recognize them, but no one feels the need to interrupt their conversation, which is respectable.

Nick bugs off after just one drink, he’s got a wife to get home to. But Phil surprises himself for the second time in the night and agrees to stay with Carl for another. And then another.

Phil wouldn’t consider himself a lightweight. He’s a professional hockey player, he’s done his share of drinking in the past. But he also doesn’t drink nearly as much as some people, and towards the end of the third drink he’s starting to feel a bit tipsy. Tipsy enough that as he’s talking, his hands swing around out of control and knock over his beer glass into Carl’s lap.

Phil doesn’t think, just puts his hand out to contain the spill before it makes a mess.

It’s a mistake that Phil realizes almost immediately. His eyes go wide and he turns the glass right side up quickly before turning his body away from Carl, who’s still staring at where the beer had been tipped over and then contained by an invisible force.

“I think it’s time for us to go,” Phil says curtly. “We’re both…pretty drunk.”

“Dude,” Carl says softly.

Phil ignores him and flags down their server. He hands over his credit card without looking at the check and asks her politely to be quick. When she walks away, Phil passes over a glass of water to Carl, encouraging him to drink up.

Phil is sure to tip their server well and then pulls Carl, still processing what he saw, out of the booth when he’s done. Phil flags down a cab and stuffs them both into it. He gives the address to their apartments, thankful that they live in the same building.

“So—” Carl begins.

“Not here,” Phil states, glancing at the cab driver.

Carl catches his meaning and nods. Phil turns to the window and watches as the city passes by, thinking about what he’s going to say. Can he deny what happened? Not really. They may have been drinking, but really it was only a few beers each. Not nearly enough for Carl to be wasted to the point of imagining things. Can he get Carl more drunk when they get to his apartment and hope he blacks out and forgets what happened? Probably not, honestly. And that’s not even a nice thing to think about anyway. 

They get to the apartment building and Carl pays before Phil can get his wallet out.

“You paid for our drinks,” he says with a shrug.

They’re quiet otherwise, and when they get into the elevator Carl presses only the button for Phil’s floor and Phil knows this is going to have to happen. He lets them into his apartment and gets them both a glass of water.

“So,” Carl says, sitting down at the kitchen table. “You’re Gifted.”

Phil chokes on his own spit and has to put his glass down. He was hoping to ease into this, take it slow. He wasn’t expecting Carl to be so blunt and honest.

“Yeah,” Phil says, biting the inside of his lip.

He doesn’t know why he admits it so easily. Logic says it’s because he knows there’s no other way out of it. But something else inside Phil says it’s okay. After all, Toronto became a lot easier once Bozie knew. Plus Phil is starting to feel more comfortable here in Pittsburgh, and Carl has been a huge part of that.

“That’s cool,” he says simply.

Phil doesn’t say anything, and neither does Carl. For a while, there’s just silence between them. Phil knows better than to have false hope that this is the end of conversation. He lets himself hope for a minute, but then takes a deep breath and starts to talk.

“I’m one of two Gifted people in my family. I was the first to present in about sixty years. We never thought it was a real possibility, but on my tenth birthday I got into a little argument with my brother and when he tried to throw a pillow at me, it bounced off a forcefield.”

Phil takes a long sip of water.

“I never really use it. We looked at a special school for people like me. Where I could learn to control my ability, or something like that. But it was a boarding school, and we didn’t have the money. Plus boarding school meant no hockey, so…”

Carl is still staring at the glass in his hands, but he nods.

“I didn’t know about you,” Carl says. “No one did.”

“I keep it hidden,” Phil says with a little chuckle. “My immediate family, the people who needed to know with the Bruins, Leafs, and here. And Bozie. That’s it.”

“Yeah.”

Phil drains the rest of his water and sets his glass in the sink. He sits down across from Carl and runs a hand through his hair.

“I need to ask you not to tell anyone,” Phil says softly.

Carl takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. He looks up into Phil’s eyes.

“Before you say anything else, there’s something I need to show you,” he says.

Phil nods and Carl reaches out. He picks up the candle from the middle of his table (Amanda put it there when she helped him move in) and turns it over in his hands. Phil wants to ask, but he feels like he should wait to see what Carl is doing first. Carl holds it in his left hand only and closes his eyes.

As Phil watches, a candle begins to materialize in Carl’s right hand. Piece by piece it builds until it becomes an exact replica of the original one, still in Carl’s left hand. When it’s done, Carl puts both down on the table in front of Phil.

“So, uh. I’m Gifted, too,” he says with a shrug.

Phil feels like a weight is lifted from his chest. He lets out a short burst of laughter and looks up from the two candles. Carl has a twinkle in his eyes and Phil laughs again.

“Cool party trick,” he says, lightness in his voice.

“It has it’s moments,” Carl says with a smirk.

“I didn’t know about you,” Phil says honestly.

“I don’t keep myself nearly as much of a secret as you obviously do,” Carl explains. “But I don’t go around using my Gift that often. Or publicly. You’re the second person I’ve told in Pittsburgh, after Mario.”

Phil nods, thinking about Beau and how obvious he’s been with his Gift. Phil just figured the rest of the Gifted population was more like that. Maybe he shouldn’t have assumed.

“So…”

“I guess I should ask you not to tell anyone either,” Carl says. “Except the Network, of course.”

“What what?” Phil asks.

“Oh, yeah. You said you hadn’t told anyone, so I guess you don’t know. There’s a whole Network of us,” Carl explains. “Gifted players across the league.”

Phil nods, the new information rolling through his head. He knew there were some other players, of course. Giroux is pretty open about his Gift, and he’s heard about others. But knowing there’s enough to have an entire Network… that might change a few things in Phil’s world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phil can form forcefields and Carl can form duplicates of small items.


End file.
